Cigar wrapper tension machine



Aug. 26, 1969 D. R. SMITH CIGAR WRAPPER TENSION MACHINE 5 Sheetsw-Sheet 1 Original Filed July 26, 1965 l N VENI'OR. 11 [e I?! 5127x717,

Aug. 26, 1969 D. R. SMITH 3,463,413

CIGAR WRAPPER TENSION MACHINE Original Filed July 26, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. .2-

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6, 1969 D. R. SMITH 3,463,413

CIGAR WRAPPER TENSION MACHINE Original Filed July 26, 1965 5 Sheets-$heet 5 320 INVENTOR;

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United States Patent 3,463,413 CIGAR WRAPPER TENSION MACHINE Dale R. Smith, York, Pa., assignor to York Production Engineering C0,, Inc., Windsor, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Original application July 26, 1965, Ser. No. 474,754, now Patent No. 3,411,616, dated Nov. 19, 1968. Divided and this application Oct. 4, 1967, Ser. No. 706,726

Int. Cl. B65h 25/22 US Cl. 24275.43 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Cyclically intermittent feed means are disclosed for a cigar overwrapping and handing machine for feeding the exact same length of wrapping web to the wrapping station during the feed part of each cycle. During the nonfeed part of the cycle, energy stored in a spring during the feed part of the cycle is used to extract wrapping web from the supply roll and store it in a substantially inertialess storage area, thereby avoiding overfeeding by the supply roll due to inertia in an intermittent form of feed.

This application is a division of application Ser. No. 474,754, filed July 26, 1965 by Dale R. Smith, entitled Cigar Overwrapping and Banding Machine, now US. Patent 3,411,616, issued Nov. 19, 1968.

The present invention relates generally to improvements in machines for wrapping cigars and particularly to improvements in a cigar overwrapping and banding machine.

An important object of the invention is to provide means for drawing a web of cellophane or the like from a roll thereof in such away as tomaterially reduce the inertia to be overcome by mechanism which intermittently feeds the webof cellophane to a cigar wrapping station.

Another object is to provide such a machine wherein the cellophane web is intermittently advanced through the nip of a pair of feed rolls positively geared to the main drive of the machine to preclude accumulation of errors in feeding the same.

FIG. 1 is an end elevational view of a portion of the overwrapping and banding machine showing the feed mechanism for intermittently feeding the overwrapping web;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view showing the same portion of the machine as in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary end elevational view of a portion of the web feeding mechanism as seen from the other end of the machine;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view, mostly in section, looking along the line 44 of FIG. 3.

As indicated hereinabove, the present application is a division of application Ser. No. 474,754, filed July 26, 1965 by Dale R. Smith, entitled Cigar Overwrapping and Banding Machine, now US. Patent 3,411,616, issued Nov. 19, 1968. The present divisional application is directed only to the mechanism for feeding the overwrapping material to the wrapping station where it is cut into an individual wrapper for an individual cigar.

A primary object of the mechanism described and claimed in the present application is to provide a mechanism for intermittently feeding the same accurate length of wrapping web, such as cellophane, to the wrapping station during each feed portion of the cycle so that the cutter may cut the same accurate length of wrapping material, thereby avoiding accumulation of error. To achieve this objective, means are provided by the present invention to avoid the overfeeding which tends to occur if the supply roll of web were subjected to intermittent jerks or pulls.

The operational relationship and physical location of the feeding mechanism of the present invention relative tothe remainder of the cigar overwrapping and banding machine may be obtained by referring to my aforesaid US. Patent No. 3,411,616 in which FIG. 7 of the patent corresponds to FIG. 2 of the present divisional application. The disc 300 of the web supply roller, which is clearly visible in FIGURES 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the present application, is also clearly visible in FIGURES 1 and 7 of .the Patent 3,411,616, and may be conveniently used as a key to orient the feeding mechanism of the present application to the remainder of the cigar overwrapping and banding machine.

Referring to FIGURES l, 2, 3 and 4, extending upwardly from the frame 10 is a standard 264, and affixed to the upper end portion of the standard 264 is a horizontally extending arm 266. From the end of the arm 266 extend a boss 268 and a boss 272. Extending through the boss 268 is a stub shaft 274 having an enlarged end 276 forming a shoulder 278. The opposite end of the stub shaft 274 is provided with a flat 280 which is engaged by a screw 282 threaded through the boss 268. Threaded into the end of the shaft 274 is one end of a stud 284 provided with a flange 286. Overlying the flange 286 is a plate 290 secured by screws 292. The opposite end of the sud 284 extends through the plate 290 and affixed thereto is a hand wheel 294. The stud is provided with a fiat 296 which is engaged by a set screw 289 threaded through the hub of the hand wheel. Mounted upon the stub shaft 274 is a disc, generally designated 3011, provided with a hub 302 which engages the arm 266, and a hub 304 with an axial extension 306 of reduced diameter. A sleeve 308 is fitted over the extension 306 and fitted with a screw 310 which engages a flat on the extension 306. Extending from the boss 272 is a pin 312 upon which is pivoted an arm 314. One end of the arm is fitted with a block 316 and a laterally extending pin 318 to which is attached one end of a tension spring 320. The spring 320 extends through a flexible tubular brake 322 which overlies a circumferentially extending groove 324 formed in the hub 302 of the disc 300'. The opposite end of the spring is secured to a pin 326 extending from the boss 272. Afiixed to the pin 312 is an arm 328 to the free end of which is attached a tension spring 330. The opposite end of the spring 330- is attached to the arm 266. The arm 314 mounts longitudinally spaced flanged roller 332 and two flangeless rollers 334. Carried by a frame member 344 are a pair of flangeless rollers 336 and a flanged roller 338.

The frame member 344 also carries a pair of feed rolls 340 mounted respectively upon shafts 342 journaled in the frame member 344 and in a tie bar 346. Also mounted upon the shafts 342 respectively are a pair of meshing gears 348, one of which meshes with a gear 350 carried by a pintle 352 engaged in an arcuate slot 354 in the member 344. The gear 350 is concentric with and is affixed to a gear 356 which meshes with a gear 358 carried by the output shaft 360 of an indexing unit 362 mounted upon the plate member 48. The indexing unit (Commercial Cam C0,, Model No. B4-H20-180) is a conventional commercially available mechanism which precludes any lost motion between its input and output shafts. The input shaft 364 of the indexing unit carries a chain sprocket 366 over which is trained a chain 368. The chain 368 is also trained over a sprocket 370 mounted upon the shaft 72.

A cellophane web in the form of a roll 372 is fitted over the hub 304 of the disc 300 and secured in position by the sleeve 308. The hub 302 is drawn more or less tightly against the arm 266 by manipulating the hand Wheel 294.

3 This shifts the stub shaft 274 axially to vary the distance between the shoulder 278 and the arm 266. Spring 330 biases arm 314 counterclockwise (FIGURE 3), tensioning spring 320 and seating the tubular member 322 firmly in the groove 324. Thus the disc 300 is braked against turning freely about the stub shaft 274.

The shaft 72 makes one revolution per cycle of the machine. Sprocket 370 actuates chain 368, which turns sprocket 366 on the input shaft 364 of the indexing unit 362. The output shaft 360 and gear 358 make one revolution for every four revolutions of the shaft 72, i.e., for every four cycles of the machine. During each first onehalf revolution of the shaft 72, i.e., during the first onehalf of each machine cycle, the gear 358 remains at rest, and during each second one-half revolution of the shaft 72, i.e., during the second one-half of each machine cycle, the gear 358 makes one-quarter of a turn. Thus gear 358 is actuated intermittently and through gears 356, 350 and 348 actuates rolls 340 intermittently.

Web W passes about the rollers 332, 334, 336 and 338 and through the nip of the rolls 340, as shown. The rolls 340 intermittently feed web W one wrapper length at a time. Each successive pair of elements in the train thereof between the shaft 72 and the feed rolls 340 are positively engaged. Therefore, the length of web W fed is exact and no accumulation of error is possible. The length of the Wrapper fed may be varied by changing the gear 350 and suitably shifting the gears 350 and 356 by adjusting the pintle 352 in the arcuate slot 354.

When the feed rolls 340 are actuated, Web W is pulled from the loops thereof extending about the rollers 332, 334, 336 and 338. A pull downwardly is exerted upon the arm 314, which, aided by the pull upwardly exerted by the spring 320 pivots the arm 314 clockwise from the full line to the broken line positions shown in FIGURE 9, against the influence of spring 330. The arrangement is such that less elfort is required to pull web W from the loops thereof than would be required to pull it directly from the roll 372. At the same time, the braking effort of the tubular brake shoe 322 is reduced so that the disc 300 and the roll 372 are free to turn.

When the feed rolls stop feeding web W, spring 330 turns arm 314 back to its initial position against the influence of spring 320. Spring 320 gradually applies the brake 322. As the arm 314 rises, web W is pulled from the roll 372 thereof into the loops.

A banding unit 492 places a band B on each wrapper length and seals the same thereto. The banding unit is conventional and forms no part of the invention. Therefore it is not described.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cigar overwrapping machine:

(a) a supply roll of wrapping material;

(b) a Wrapping station whereat an individual cigar is wrapped in an individual wrapper;

(c) intermittent feed means, including positive drive means, for intermittently and cyclically feeding wrapping material to said wrapping station to provide a substantially unvarying length of Wrapping material for each cigar to be wrapped;

(d) loop storage means between said supply roll and said feed means for storing a substantially inertialess supply of wrapping material for delivery to said feed means, said storage means including:

(e) a fixed arm;

(f) a pivotal arm;

(g) a plurality of guide members mounted in substantially parallel relation on each of said arms and about which the wrapping material is threaded to provide a plurality of loops between said supply roll and said feed means;

(h) energy storage spring means connected to said pivotal arm and adapted to store energy during each feed portion of the cycle as said pivotal arm is pulled toward said fixed arm in response to the pull on said wrapper by said feed means;

(i) the energy in said spring means being adapted to be released during the non-feed portion of the cycle to return said pivotal arm away from said fixed arm, thereby to pull additional wrapping material from said supply roll during the non-feed portion of the cycle and deliver it to said loop storage means.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterized in that brake means are provided for said supply roll secured to said pivotal arm and adapted to be progressively released when said pivotal arm is pulled toward said fixed arm and adapted to be progressively applied as said pivotal arm is returned by said energy storage spring means away from said fixed arm.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 833,848 10/ 1906 Rundlett 74-397 2,147,027 2/1939 Grier 74397 2,948,488 8/ 1960 Schoebel et al 242--75 .43 3,116,032 12/ 1963 Roberts 242--75 .43 3,193,211 7/1965 Flood 242-75.43

FOREIGN PATENTS 217,961 11/1961 Austria.

NATHAN L. MINTZ, Primary Examiner 

